"I'd seen the console more and more on shows and festivals," Berry comments, "And thought this would be an ideal opportunity to learn it, specially knowing that we'd be dealing with a wide selection of different moving lights every night, so I knew that the fixture cloning and exchange facilities would be a great asset."
The lightshow is a moody, heavily back-positioned mix of colour, beams and movement, with plenty of subtleties that require meticulous programming and execution, a task that Berry finds very straightforward with the grandMA once she'd grasped the basics. She also likes the flexibility of being able to set the desk out exactly as you want to suit the style of operation.
The European touring package - supplied by west London based Panalux consisted of six Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300s, four Martin Washlights, two smoke machines and a hazer - an expedient rig which Berry made go a long way.
Berry's show is almost entirely improvised, so that's how she's set up the desk to work, finding it "completely rock solid". Each song has a non-positional orientated preset on the spots programmed into a Cue Stack, with all the Wash and Beam activity busked and added over the top. Spot positions are also added live, in order to offer Eldritch opportunities to play as he prowls the stage, but should he choose not to be seen, a dark area upstage centre gives him a place to hide.
For the European section of the tour, the grandMA was supplied by TDA, from Essen, Germany.
(Jim Evans)
